Design

Android KitKat: Design

For the first time since its inception over five years ago, Android finally feels like it has found its visual identity. As a result, those expecting sweeping aesthetic alterations in 4.4 will be sorely disappointed. In fact, to the untrained eye there's very little difference between 4.4 and 4.3.

What we have here is an incremental improvement, with subtle visual upgrades that enrich the experience without being glaringly obvious. The removal of the black background on the notification bar is one such example.

And everything is white. Well, not everything – just all the status icons, things like Wi-Fi, Battery, and Data. The switch from blue to white is most evident at the top of the display, where the time and battery icons live. It’s not a big change in the grand scheme of things, but it is change nonetheless. And the thinking behind the switch is explained below:

“Aesthetic concerns definitely factored into this (as has been mentioned elsewhere, a more neutral SystemUI allows apps to manage their own color palettes a bit better), but also keep in mind that with the new translucent bars feature, the color became a usability problem. Good old 33b5e5 doesn't pop as well on top of random wallpapers, even with the background protection,” wrote Google’s Dan Sandler in a Google+ post. 

The application dock at the bottom of the screen now feels less like a walled-off part of the home screen and more inclusive, all thanks to the simple fact that the horizontal line which cut it off in 4.3 has been removed.